 I might be annoyed at the smugness of my new vaccuum cleaner, if only it weren't right. Shoe provided for size context.
Cute is big here -- it's not as extreme a phenomenon as it is in Japan (where, in my experience, everything can be made smaller, smoother, rounder, and more gadgety, and has), but it's big. Or rather, it's small. Now I'm confusing myself. Anyway, Hello Kitty is prevalent, to no one's surprise, I'm sure.
 I wouldn't have taken a picture of this (right) but for the fact that it was stuck on this car: cuteness squared! Or overdosed, whichever.
 And of course, we can't leave out the kitchen appliances. The pooch at the bottom is an ice-cream maker [ed. change, 24-2: Sorry about the bad formatting; I had to rearrange these two pictures to combat technical problems] . I don't know about you, but I don't really think I want ice cream that's been in a dog's mouth.
Yes, it's the post you've all been waiting for. I went back to the restaurant with the jar of funny liquid, and came back with photos and at least half of an explanation.  OK, so it's not a very *good* photo -- you try taking a glass jar of amber liquid in bad fluorescent lighting with a stern Chinese woman staring at you. Still, you should get the idea. Any guesses on what's inside? Those of you who are avid readers may remember that I was torn between medicinal herbs or weird animal parts. In fact, it's both.
The little red things on the bottom are seeds that are supposed to be good for your eyesight. The white thing lying horizontally near the bottom (not the bright red & white spigot on the left) that looks like it has tentacles is ginseng. Behind that you should be able to make out a branch with, yes, a dead snake coiled around it. We didn't find out what all of the ingredients were, but elsewhere in there is, wait for it... deer penis. I can hear all of you salivating as you read this.
Anyway, it turns out this is a "men's drink" (ahem), so I passed on trying it out. Sorry, my blog dedication goes only so far. (But if any of the gentlemen reading find themselves in the neighborhood and want to provide a report, I'll be happy to point you in the right direction!)
I don't care where you're from, 50 people standing abreast makes for a freakin' big crosswalk. Scene from a shopping-heavy section of Hong Kong.
At 11:30pm tonight I had a post already written, talking about the craziness of the fireworks displays here. About how they'd been going on for six hours, in spurts of increasing frequency, building to the inevitable midnight crescendo. About how I could see five different displays at the same time from my living room window. About how loud fireworks are when you're 30 feet away from them, how it really does sound like what I imagine a war zone would, and how the sky turns different colors and the smell of sulfur permeates the air. And about how nutty it is that people just light a box of fireworks in the street and step back five paces to watch it go off, while traffic casually meanders around the boxes.
And then 11:45 rolled around, and HOLY CRAP. Nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared me for what happened at 11:45. Honest to God, you could have dropped a bomb (or five) on the city and nobody would have noticed. I'm not kidding. In perfect synchronicity, everyone who had been putting on their displays to that point ratcheted them up another five notches, and they were joined by newcomers with lots of ammunition. On my block alone there were four huge fireworks displays, not to mention the sparklers on the sidewalks. One of the new displays set up on the street right below my bedroom window, such that fallout from the explosions actually hit my windows and exterior walls. There's no such thing as safety distance here. There's also nothing quite like sitting in a window watching fireworks explode on all sides of you, even headed straight at you.
Coming from a culture where fireworks displays are regulated, controlled, one-per-community affairs (if that), this is at once overwhelming, thrilling, and utterly insane. It's as if the city is under attack; everywhere you look, there's nothing but bursts of light and sound... oh, the sound. To call it deafening wouldn't do it justice; even inside my apartment with the windows closed, I could have used earplugs. At the peak, I could feel the vibrations from the thunder coming through my walls and floor. And the thing is, the entire city looks like this. Forget seeing four or five displays at a time; for twenty minutes there were four or five displays on my block, and easily twice as many visible in the distance. I had turned off my lights for better visibility, but every corner of my apartment was visible thanks to the light thrown off by so many explosions from all sides. It's an absolutely phenomenal, incredible, jaw-dropping experience.
The madness -- well, the extreme madness -- went on for about half an hour; sometime after 12:30 or so things started to slow down a bit as people ran out of explosives. And although I'm sitting here listening to the odd remnant burst, idly wondering how I'm going to get to sleep tonight, I can also see missing the absolute chaos of it all next year.
Unfortunately, I can't put any video up right now, and the stills I have don't remotely convey the scene, but I'll see if we can make something happen later in the month.
Just wanted to let you all know that there is some upcoming downtime for the blog. I'm heading to Hong Kong for a week to meet up with family, celebrate the new year, enjoy some above-freezing weather, and eat lots of good dimsum. If I'm lucky, I'll also find a good pair of running shoes, as mine need to be replaced. I don't anticipate having internet access, so this is probably it til mid-month. Happy Year of the Rat!
 A couple of updates on the first two Q&As:
1. I've added fish maw and fish head to my consumed-items list here. Not so unorthodox, but I generally only eat them in Asia, and I didn't want y'all to think I was surviving (or not) on bad chips.
2. In case any of you were wondering what I was referring to by "squat toilet", here's an example of one. They're usually totally open, without the little hood that this one boasts, but one tends not to be so picky when trying to surreptitiously photograph public toilets.
Also, I just realized that when I made the most recent changes to the MaxiMe page, I forgot to actually make them live. D'oh. You can see MaxiMe's friend now.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is Chinese New Year's Eve, which means that things have been busy around here. People have been traveling by the millions (an estimated 50 million a day on buses for the past two days, to go up to 60 million tomorrow), when they aren't getting stuck in places like the Guangzhou train station. On a serious note, all of the uncharacteristic snow over the last couple of weeks caused a lot of problems, which seem to be well on their way to being solved now, but not without casualty. An estimated half a million people (yep, 500,000 -- equivalent to a medium-sized American city) have been stuck at the Guangzhou train station over the past week, and although the army seems to have done their best (and most helpful) to keep the situation controlled, things were bound to get out of hand when people were finally allowed to board a train; it's been reported that one person died in the resulting stampede. Frankly, I'm surprised it wasn't worse. In addition to that, there have been deaths due to car and bus accidents on frozen highways, electricity blackouts resulting from coal not getting through to certain regions, and worries about food shortages because of farmers not being able to get to markets. Anyway, I figure that might not be making headlines over there, so I thought I'd mention it. Life in Shanghai hasn't been markedly different, but large parts of the country have been deeply affected.
 Here in Shanghai, though, it's the countdown to the Year of the Rat. Unofficially, Spring Festival, as it's otherwise known, started sometime in the past month, and won't end for a couple weeks after New Year's Day. A few of the smaller stalls have started shutting down over the past few days, and I expect everything to be closed on Thursday. Officially, the holiday lasts for 7 days, so things will probably be fairly quiet for a while. Of course, I myself am heading out of town for a bit, so I won't really know.
 In the meantime, though, some people have been celebrating the "little new year" -- the week before the real new year ("big new year"), and as should be expected, the celebrations are getting bigger as the days count down. I've been hearing the odd bang now and then for over a week, but the ruckus has started in earnest now. Firecrackers are readily available (apparently they were banned until 2006), as, evidently, are actual fireworks. I've now seen at least 3 fireworks displays in the few blocks around my building -- the one pictured here was just barely peeking around another building in my complex -- and have heard (but couldn't see) others. And I live in a relatively quiet part of town! Between the blasts and the rat-a-tat of the firecrackers, New Year's Eve downtown supposedly sounds like a war zone (but with fewer injuries, and a much lighter atmosphere). Check out this guy's video and account of the 2006 celebrations if you're interested.
Really, this is getting a little absurd. However, the same could probably also be said for my continuing obsession with the snowmen.
Well, it's late Sunday night here in China, which means the Super Bowl is over for me. I promise not to tell you who won.
No, you're right, it doesn't work that way. But I didn't relish the idea of doing the promised potato chip taste-test early on a Monday morning, so I advanced the schedule a little. I realize the original Mr Chips post was a little long-winded, so let me make the results more succinct: Bleah.
I'm pretty sure I won't be buying any of these flavors again. For those of you who are curious, here's the rundown, from "best" to worst.
Sauteed Prawn
This ranks as the best only because of its competition. When I bought these, I had been hoping for something like the shrimp crackers I like to get at Asian grocery stores (or fry up from the dried state). Those taste a little shrimpy, but are mostly light and fluffy -- styrofoam in an edible form, if you will. That may not sound all that appetizing to you, but I like them. Which should give you some idea of the height of the bar when I tell you that these prawn chips fell way below it. The flavor itself was pretty innocuous, some generic blend of spices (salt, garlic, bland cayenne?), but no discernible seafood taste. The bigger problem was the texture -- these were a ruffled chip, and as such, were thicker and heavier than the others; too thick and heavy, I thought. They also seemed to hold more oil, ick. Zero points for flavor, -2 for texture. And this one came out on top.
French Chicken
These seem to be what we in the US call BBQ. I'm not sure what about the flavor is supposed to be french, nor what's supposed to be chicken. I mean, they're pretty much exactly what you think of when you think "bbq chips" (not actual barbecue flavor, mind you, just the sweet-tangy orangey chip flavor) -- do those actually make you think "meat"? If anything, these might be a little stronger (and sweeter). And yes, these ones are that unnatural shade of orange too. Again, back to the "swavory" -- the fact that I'm familiar with the flavor didn't make the sweetness taste any better. It was a close call between these and the prawn, but the fact that I couldn't eat more than 3 of these at one go threw it over to the shrimp.
Lime
Oh, dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. I love lime. I like limeade, lime rickeys, lime sherbet, key lime pie, tequila-lime chicken, and, as previously mentioned, tortilla chips with lime. But definitely not lime-flavored potato chips. (Ed. note: OK, I also once had a lime-flavored chocolate bar that wasn't so good.) These chips were not so much lime-flavored as ... margarita-flavored. Without the alcohol. Meaning that the dominant taste was actually sugar. Sugary potato chips are definitely not my thing. In fact, if you know anyone who wants to try some, I have half a bag left... (yes, I choked down more than two chips. These are the sacrifices I make for you, my loyal readers. I hope all ten of you appreciate it).
So there you go, I have now been cured of the desire to sample any more potato chips while I'm here (or perhaps ever). I have, however, come across an amazing array of one brand's cracker flavors on the local supermarket shelves -- the following list is from one market, so I'm sure there are others out there:  Bean (appears to be soybean?)
Black Pepper
Cherry Tomato
Cumin
Curry
Hot Welsh Onion (the bag features red chili peppers on a bed of spring onion... I am intrigued)
Ma La Tang (this is a hotpot soup where you throw in whatever ingredients you want -- but the name means "numb, spicy, hot (temp)," so I'm betting it's a spicy flavor)
Pizza
Sesame
Shrimp Salad
Tomato
The tasting adventures may yet continue... but I have to wait for my stomach to forgive me first!
 But there are fish in the subway. This is in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the subway station (and under a large intersection) that happens to double as a mini-aquarium (only 3 tanks). I wonder what the fish think about the people who spend all day walking back and forth, back and forth.
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